1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image receiving medium to be used in combination with a sublimation type thermal image transfer recording medium comprising a sublimation-type-dye containing image transfer layer.
2. Discussion of Background
Conventionally, a laminated material is employed as an image receiving medium for use in sublimation type thermal image transfer recording. The laminated material comprises a substrate such as a sheet of synthetic paper, high quality paper, art paper, or coated paper, or a polyester film, and a dye receiving layer formed on the substrate. The dye receiving layer comprises as the main component a material such as a thermoplastic polyester resin having strong dyeing properties with respect to a sublimation-type dye and is provided on the substrate, for example, by coating.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 3-83686 discloses an image receiving medium for use in sublimation type thermal image transfer, which comprises a substrate such as a sheet of high quality paper, art paper, coated paper, synthetic-resin-impregnated, or emulsion-impregnated paper, or a film of a synthetic resin such as polyolefin, polyethylene terephthalate or polystyrene; and a dye receiving layer comprising a vinyl resin or a polyester resin, formed on the substrate.
When the substrate of such an image receiving medium is not a sheet of paper, but a resin film, however, there are the shortcomings that the handling properties are poor because the substrate made of a resin does not have a paper-like touch, and that the manufacturing cost thereof is high. On the other hand, when a sheet of paper such as coated paper is employed as the substrate of the image receiving sheet, voids or irregularities are formed on the surface of the image receiving sheet, because the substrate is made of a fibrous material. As a result, a sublimation type dye contained in an image transfer layer of a sublimation type thermal image transfer recording medium cannot be clearly transferred imagewise to the dye receiving layer of the image receiving sheet, and non-image-transferred portions are formed in the images obtained.